Week 14 - Big D Half Marathon

Today I ran for the second time the Big D Half Marathon.  I did better by about four or five minutes better compared to last year's run, despite last year having better weather conditions.  I didn't mind the cool temps as I love running in temps between 50 and 65 degrees but it either threatened to rain throughout the race or it was a light drizzle.  The last 5 minutes of running were perhaps the worst in that it poured rain and made for a very cold finish.

It's a fairly hilly course (in my opinion) but it can be a very pretty run through a couple nice neighborhoods.  I think it lead to part of my running struggles later in the race as it caused me to expend more energy than I wanted.  I also didn't eat or drink anything before the race and so I bonked right around the 9 or 10 mile marker.  This just further reinforces that I must eat or drink something before each training run or race if I want to perform my best.

I really don't mind this race and would run it again.  They offer a full marathon course and if I ever decide to run a full marathon I would consider it.

Course

Elevation Chart

Up next - and 18 mile training run on Saturday!

Week 3 - 10 miles

Today was a great day to run.  Temps started out in the high 30s/low 40s with low humidity.  It's always cold to start out but once I get going I warm up pretty quick.

The first couple miles always feel like my worst because it takes two to three miles for my legs to really warm up.  Once I got past the first water stop, I was feeling really good and put the hammer down and really cranked up my pace.  I believe my best pace was sub 9:00/mi!  A good goal would be to be able to maintain this type of pace for longer periods of time and I should be able to easily finish a half marathon in under 2 hours.

My battery died mid run so I don't have the complete route with all the useful stats (mainly time per mile) so I drew the map out using MapMyRun, which is what the trainers use to create the routes we run each week.

I ate a Clif Bar before leaving my house to go run, which gave my a nice little boost of energy.  I did start running out of gas past the 7 mile marker, so I need to continue to work on my fueling strategy.  The good thing is that I didn't have nearly as many of the problems of dry heaves (only at the first water stop) so that's good.

I did hit the wall at the 9 mile marker.  We have a monster hill near the start point that the trainers have us run from time to time.  Going up that beast is a real chore, especially at the end of a long run.  I paused a couple times in order to reset my mind in order to make it up but I got through it.

For my next run I am going to try to eat some Sports Beans that I have which are made by Jelly Belly at each of the water stops to try to maintain my energy levels throughout my run.  I like the beans because I can pop one or two in my mouth and suck on them while run.

I feel pretty good after 10 miles.  A little sore but feeling pretty energized.  These are the types of runs that I enjoy the most, where even if I don't have my absolute best run I am not the least bit discouraged.